Sri Lanka, for 40,000 women tsunami emergency not over yet
Ampara (AsiaNews) - Thousands of women in Sri Lanka are still suffering because of the tsunami. A little more than four years after the tragedy that struck the country, poverty is a daily reality for widows and mothers living in Eastern province.
40,000 women have signed the Women's Memorandum, drafted by a dedicated committee promoted by groups including the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement, presenting to the governor of the region their needs and the serious responsibilities of institutions. "Our politicians and some of the media promised us that Eastern province would attain rapid development thanks to programs launched by the government," the women say. "Today, because of the disaster of the tsunami and the situation of the war, we reject all of this because we know that nothing has changed in our lives. We still live with the same painful problems."
International Women's Day was the occasion to present the requests to the governor of the province, Sivanesathurei Chandrakanthan. A thousand people, women and men, marched silently through the streets of Addalachchenai holding up signs with the requests and complaints of women. They presented the results of the Memorandum to the governor and to some members of local institutions present at the demonstration, which concluded at the Raauff Hakeem Memorial.
The problems raised by the women concern the dramatic conditions facing both homes and the surrounding environment after the tsunami, health problems, the serious gaps in the education system, the lack of basic structures in the region. Many of them were widowed after the tragedy in 2004, or because of the conflict. They are the women of the villages around Trincomalee and Ampara. They have subdivided their requests to the government of the province into seven chapters, in which they present their situation and remind the government of its unfulfilled promises.
A.D. Wasanthi, a promoter of the Memorandum, explains to AsiaNews that "some of the refugees of the tsunami are still living in the camps, vulnerable to theft, child abuse, with problems concerning jobs and their economic condition. It is a condition of psychological stress that has driven some of them to attempt suicide. And all of this is happening because of the negligence of government representatives."
The conditions are being made worse by the widespread lack of jobs. The subsistence economy of nuclear families, specifically based on fishing, has been seriously harmed by the tsunami. Many fishermen lost their boats and their work implements, and are still waiting for the compensation promised by the government and the assignment of new areas in which they can fish. For the women, this situation is further complicated because they are often solely responsible for the subsistence of their families.
.png)
10/02/2009
